Setting the Standard
The Carbon Trust Standard is independent confirmation that we have genuinely reduced our carbon footprint. The assessment procedure is extremely rigorous and operates on established international measurement systems including the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and ISO 14064.
To achieve the Carbon Trust Standard, organisations must:
- Measure their carbon footprint, including their electricity and gas consumption, any other onsite fuel consumption such as heating oil or diesel and the fuel consumption of the vehicles they own
- Make an absolute reduction in emissions or a 2.5% per annum improvement against a carbon efficiency benchmark
- Provide evidence that their organisation is managing carbon in an appropriate manner through effective governance procedures, accurate carbon accounting and carbon management programmes.
So what are we doing?
Some of the initiatives and activities which have resulted in our Carbon Trust Standard Award include:
- Helping our customers keep track. The Greenhouse Gas Tracker is a system which calculates the carbon footprint of the services we provide. Major customers include Eurostar, Whitbread and the NHM.
- Saving resources in the office. We have installed an energy conservation programme on our company's computers.
- Carbon reduction at home. Our Green Office recycling scheme provides a consistent approach to recycling right across our network of offices.
- Transport strategy. To help reduce the carbon emissions produced by the UK’s largest waste collection fleet, we’ve introduced electric powered street cleaning vehicles, and dual fuel refuse collection vehicles. We also train all drivers in responsible driving practices and route optimisation, driving down carbon emissions and our customers’ costs.
- Carbon emissions measurement. We’ve recently adopted CloudApps Carbon, a carbon management solution which allows us to track energy consumption by site.
- Result! This year we won a Green 500 Platinum Award from Mayor Boris Johnson for our commitment to reducing carbon emissions in London.
For more information on our carbon reduction activities please download our 2009 Annual Review or contact us on cr@veolia.co.uk.